The Cat in the Hat Meaning

What is this book really about?

Another doctor with a funny name, Sigismund Schlomo Freud, famously said that sometimes a talking cat in a hat is just a talking cat in a hat.

That is most certainly not the situation here.

To get us started, here's a great quote from the Doctor himself: "Children's literature as I write it and as I see it is… satirizing the mores and habits of the world."(Source, 62). That's right, Seuss was spongy. He absorbed all the serious issues going on in the world and expressed them through his work.

Some of his books have super-clear and obvious messages (The Lorax, anyone?), but things aren't so simple with The Cat in the Hat. This universally loved story seems to promote both chaos and order at the same time, even suggesting that they can coincide. But at its heart, The Cat in the Hat is about fun. Rip-roaring, rollicking, limitless fun.

The Cat in the Hat isn't just a book—it's a philosophy. A philosophy that says you can have your cake and bounce on a ball with it, too. And within that frame, Seuss manages to inject all kinds of serious political concerns of the 1950s. Impressive, we know.